Book Review: The Marriage Act | John Marrs

Another installment in John Marrs’ Orwellian world that feels chillingly not so far removed from our own, The Marriage Act is brilliant, terrifying, and compelling speculative fiction. In his latest book, Marrs explores a not-so-far-off future where the government in Great Britain has passed legislation that significantly disadvantages single individuals or those widowed or divorced.

About the Book (Goodreads)

What if marriage was the law? Dare you disobey?

Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills — the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.

But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives — monitoring every word, every minor disagreement — and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.

Review

If you’ve read other books by John Marrs including The One (also made into an eight-part Netflix series that was outstanding), The Minders, or The Passengers, you will know what to expect from his latest installment into this Orwellian world he’s created, The Marriage Act. You can definitely read these books in any order and you can jump into one without reading the others, but if you enjoy them I highly recommend reading all of them! I read most of them (including this one) on my own time so I actually need to make sure I’ve reviewed them all so I can reference the full set, but suffice it to say I thoroughly enjoyed all of them!

Structure and Overview

John Marrs’ books with several POVs that may tie together or be completely separate. This works for his books (particularly in this universe he writes about) because the premise of the book is more about the political system, technology, and society and less about any single character (though as a collective I found each character completely captivating and their individual stories just as riveting). I bring this up because first time Marrs readers will sometimes say it takes them a bit to learn who each character is since there are a lot of them and they don’t always intersect.

In The Marriage Act, Great Britain in the near-future has passed a law called the Sanctity of Marriage Act that they believe will resolve most of society’s issues, from health to financial security. Under this law, the government believes that those in happy and committed marriages will tend to lead to a more productive society. To encourage and support the sanctity of marriage, this act leads to better housing, tax breaks, better job opportunities, priority access to health care, and better schools for children for couples who are not only married, but who agree to a 24/7 electronic monitoring device in their home called and Audite.

Not dissimilar to a jacked-up Amazon Alexa, the Audite monitoring system listens and records periodically throughout the day to dialogue between couples. At any sign of discontent, the Audite may escalate the couple through a series of phases, that may start with continuous monitoring by the device or escalate to a relationship responder, who is essentially a government employee who moves into your home and works with couples on their marriage issues. If they can’t be resolves, the liaison may go so far as to require the couple to separate, meaning they lose not only their marriage, but any perks that came with it.

There is so much complexity and nuance to this world, including clauses that advantage a physically healthy spouse and disadvantage one diagnosed with a disease or illness, laws to “support” widowed or divorced individuals recouple into a new marriage quickly, and better job opportunities to individuals in committed relationships who get married straight away, over those graduating with degrees who happen to be single.

Plot and Characters

The story follows four primary storylines though it includes several other characters and roles within each. I don’t want to spoil too much so I will keep these just specific enough to catch your interest without divulging how the stories play out or intertwine.

Our main couples include a vlogger who aspires to continue to grow her social media audience and the perks that come with it while also growing her family. This relationship also explores the light and darkside of social media and political coverage of the act through this vlogger and another more famous influencer whose story opens the book. I liked how Marrs shows how the pressure to be perfect on social media is not so dissimilar to the pressure to be perfect in your marriage for the Audite, and how both can crack when you least expect it.

Another central couple includes a retired firefighter and his wife, who also worked as a firefighter. Their story is completely captivating and eventually introduces us to another nuance of the Sanctity of Marriage Act that I won’t spoil here, as well as another character who I found completely compelling despite having a minor role in the story.

One storyline follows a gay couple who were matched through the perfect match DNA technology (explored in depth in the book The One, though this couple is new to this story) and are going through the normal ups and downs of any couple, when their Audite escalates them to a relationship responder named Jeffrey who is…a troubled and fascinating character to say the least!

The last central couple that is followed is a more conventional married couple with children who have fallen out of love and seek to separate or divorce while worrying about what implications that may have for their status, income, jobs, and childrens’ futures. While this was initially the story that interested me the least, seeing how terrifying the repercussions of the law were for the two people involved in this couple was a necessary component to understanding the government control through this act. This storyline also introduces or ties in lots of small side characters that I found equally as compelling, despite very small parts in the broader novel.

Finally, there is are some other POV introduced, including broadcasts and advertisements from news and media or promoting the benefits of the Sanctity of Marriage Act. Another character who we see is an employee who works somehow with the broader government initiative (though the specifics of his job aren’t immediately clear) and the implications of his job on his family and well-being. Jeffrey (the relationship responder I mentioned earlier) also gets several chapters and he is quite a trip!

Overall Thoughts

The story is cleverly plotted, captivating, and chilling. I love the way John Marrs chooses laws or societal and political issues that are already present today, and amps them up to explore what our future could be if things escalated a bit more. Of course we have nothing exactly like the Sanctity of Marriage Act, however we do already live in a society that advantages couples over single people and healthy and happy people over those who are ill or struggling.

It doesn’t seem so far-fetched that most of us, in exchange for better housing, more money, and better health coverage would agree to have a device occasionally monitor us. How often do we all sign away our personal data for the convenience of smart home technology that allow us to control lights, music, and temperature with our voices, or sell our personal information to take a “what muppet are you” quiz on social media without batting an eye (joking a small bit with that latter example, but you see my point)? Most people accept terms of use without reading them, or thinking through the long-term implications. And why would we? I think most of us live in a world where we assume the best intention of others, our government, and the sanctity of companies that we provide access to our data through technology.

Truly an outstanding addition to the speculative fiction genre I can’t recommend The Marriage Act (and the other books from this world by John Marrs) enough! Thought-provoking and spine-tingling!